Keyblade Trainers
by C War
Summary: This is what I get for crossing keyblades and Pokemon when I was doodling: Keyblade Trainers. The world of Pokemon has shattered, and only the power of the Keyblade can restore order.


_Those who are closest to nature react first to its changes._

_Humans are the last to detect danger._

_Unless they listen to the wild, the disaster will consume them._

_Those with the strongest hearts are given the key._

_But where will the doors they unlock lead them?_

Ash woke up with a jolt. It was the same dream again. The blackness, the voice, the windows...it seemed important, but he couldn't say how.

"Hey, Ash! Move it or lose it!" Ash went over to the window to see Gary below.

"Oh come on, Gary, shouldn't you be at your grandpa's lab or something?"

"Yeah, and so should you! He wants to talk to us!"

"Alright, I'm coming, I'm coming. Yeesh, you've been tough to deal with ever since your parents, and my dad, vanished." Gary fell silent at Ash's comment, a hurt look on his face. Ash had scored a direct hit, and he knew it. Ash hadn't been very close to his father, but Gary had lost both parents, and Daisy could only do so much to take their place. "Hey, sorry, it's early. I'll be right down."

Gary was still standing there five minutes later when Ash came out, a piece of toast in his mouth. He was still standing in the same place, too. Ash went over to see if he was alright. "Gary? I said I'm sorry. Hey, come on!" Ash reached out to shake Gary's shoulders, but Gary moved first, snagging the toast from Ash's hand and running down the street.

"Try and catch me, Ash_ley_."

"Now that's crossing the line!" Ash laughed and sprinted after him, all the way to the lab. When they reached the door, Gary handed back the toast (half eaten) and led the way inside.

"Ah, good, you're here. Now come, boys, come, I've just found something very interesting." Professor Oak claimed to have once been world famous, when the world consisted of more than just the area around their town. He had maps from when the world was huge, from when the dirt road to the north didn't loop around to the south, but led to a city called "Viridian". The rest of the words on the maps were worn with age, but that one was still intact. He also had records on all sorts of species of Pokemon, instead of the dozen types that could be found around their little town. He said that once he had studied them, here in the lab, and had hundreds of different types. But not long before the catastrophe, they all ran away. Only a few remained, including the Pikachu and Eevee that Ash and Gary had teamed up with.

"What is it, Gramps?" Gary asked as Professor Oak led the way into the basement.

"It may well be a key to understanding what happened fifty years ago," Oak explained as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "Or, more precisely, a key_hole._" He turned on a light, and they saw a keyhole in the middle of a strange stone arch. It looked very out of place with the rest of the basement and its machinery. "Perhaps this could also explain why the stars have been disappearing lately."

"Stars...disappearing?" Ash asked, confused.

"You mean you haven't noticed?" Gary asked condescendingly. "Well, I guess you're no astronomer, so..."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. But what does it mean?" Ash turned back to Oak, ignoring Gary's taunting.

"It could mean many things. The stars are different than they were when I was a child. Perhaps...they are the other cities, the rest of the world." The last line echoed in the stillness, its implication leaving a solemn silence as the three of them returned to the main level.

"Is there anything else, Professor?" Ash asked warily.

"There is...one thing, which I haven't shown you two before." Oak took them now through the main level of the house, to a bookcase. He then palmed the wall next to it, and a keypad appeared. Typing in his password, he then stepped back as the bookcase swung outward, revealing a hidden portion of his lab. "I hadn't wanted to show you this before, but...with that keyhole having appeared, this may be necessary information."

The two young boys walked in, and saw a gallery of sorts. Pictures, artifacts, books...it was like a museum! In the far corner was a computer hooked up to a containment tube. It held some sort of black creature, with a big head and yellow eyes. "What is this, Gramps?" Gary asked tentatively.

"This, is my record of the old world. My maps are only part of it. Look around. These photos are of all of the cities in what was called "Kanto".

"The boys looked at each of the pictures. Each of them seemed to focus on one large building, with the rest of the town surrounding it. Beneath each was a plaque with the town name. "Back then, boys and girls would depart from their hometowns around their tenth birthday to become Trainers. Many would travel around the country, battling other trainers and catching new Pokemon. The largest of these competitions was here, at the Pokemon League on Indigo Plateau." Professor Oak pointed to a picture of a large stadium, with a city sprawled around it. Next to it was a picture of a young man who looked a lot like Gary, holding a large trophy and smiling with six Pokemon the boys didn't know behind him.

"That picture is of you, right Professor?"

"Indeed it is, Ash. I was the League Champion when I was fifteen, younger than you are now. But ten years later..._these_ started to appear." Professor Oak indicated the black creature, scorn in his voice. "At first, we thought they were Pokemon, and Trainers tried to treat them as such. But their own Pokemon knew better, and did their best to avoid them. With further research, horrific information came to light. These creatures...steal Hearts."

"What?" both boys shouted at the same time.

"That's how we felt. We couldn't believe it, but images were soon broadcast, and fear and panic spread like wildfire. We found that we could at least keep them at bay with strong Pokemon, but that just drove most people to hide in their homes, defending what they could. The cities became fortresses of sorts, striving to keep at bay the growing number of Heartless."

"But if they steal hearts, why are they called Heartless?" Ash asked, half not wanting to know the answer.

"As they are made of the materials of the stolen hearts, they don't actually have hearts themselves. Thus, they are truly heartless beings, not stopped by any sort of morals or emotions." Oak's voice began to break, and he couldn't continue for a moment. "Once the people...retreated to the cities...the cities seemed to retreat from each other. The world...broke apart, into smaller and smaller pieces. Communications fell apart, and the cities became isolated...for all I know, we could be some of the only humans remaining..." Oak's voice broke again, and tears were running down his face. Fear coursed through both boys at what he had just told them.

"So, why does this apply now, Gramps?" Gary asked quietly.

"Because...I found this one yesterday, near the keyhole. The first one I've seen in fifty years..." He trailed off, and the only sound in the hidden room was the Heartless scratching around in its prison...


End file.
